Max Verstappen and Renault find themselves at loggerheads with each other, as Verstappen has been constantly frustrated with the performance of the Renault engine, something that he feels has massively hampered his 2018 season.
Renault have visibly suffered with performance, reliability and durability issues this season and Max has been pretty vocal about those issues.
Yesterday, Abiteboul launched an attack on ‘loud mouthed’ Verstappen for complaining too much and maybe expecting a little too much from the engine.
Last night, after FP2, Verstappen replied to Abiteboul, taking a massive dig at him by saying that if he concentrated on his team as much as he did on Verstappen moaning, Renault would be world champions.
“If he would concentrate a little bit more on his own team instead of moaning about me all the time, they would already be world champions.
“I don’t understand these things. He just has to concentrate on himself. I always concentrate on myself when I’m in the car.
“I don’t think that’s the issue, but we’ll see.” Verstappen said, as quoted by Ziggo Sport.
Verstappen went on with his tirade, emphasising on the fact that he was here to win and not just compete(or finish 7th).
“That man is just frustrated,” said Verstappen.
“I’m just very honest. I just explained clearly why we have to revert back to the B [spec].
“That turbo won’t last in Mexico and Brazil. If we would race with that [engine] then we would not make it to the finish for sure.
“So, it’s not that I’m lying. I just think that he can’t take it very well, that I am too realistic and too straightforward.
“I demand a lot from the equipment, but I’m here to win. I’m not here to become seventh like they are doing.” he added.
The Renault-Red Bull relationship has grown sour over the last few months, especially after the announcement that Red Bull will be making the switch to Honda next season.
